Fuck that Tony Snow. He should be tried for War Crimes. It's people like him who deserve what they get.

WTF kind of interview was this? Usually Dave has trouble hiding his contempt for guests he doesn't respect, but he guffawed along with and genuflected before this propagandist.

Summary of Snow's comments: *Bush is such a great guy, so much fun. *It's so much fun to work for this Administration. *I love journalists. The reporters I work with were smart. *We didn't make any mistakes. *Bush's ratings could be better. Congress' are lower. *Bush is smart. He read three biographies of Washington last year. *Bush and legacy: historians still don't agree on #1 (washington) so Bush isn't worried about how history will judge him.

Just because Snow will die from Cancer doesn't mean that interviewers should abdicate their responsibility in asking the hard questions.

Fuck Letterman too.

Yeah, Dave pretty much went along with Bush's propagandist. I can't really get too upset at Letterman. Dave Letterman isn't a journalist - he doesn't even play one on TV. When he has had run-ins with right-wing assholes like Bill O'Reilly, it is because he dislikes them and even then he often does a mediocre job of taking them to task. It isn't his job to act like a journalist - seriously, he has a job wherein he is supposed to entertain people, and despite his above-average intelligence, he isn't sufficiently on top on events and the facts surrounding events to do that job properly.

David Letterman is not the problem. He hosts a late night entertainment show - it isn't his responsibility to 'ask the hard questions'. (Though it is fair to ask why Letterman had this asshole on his show at all.) The problem is that we have a corporate media populated with mostly sycophants and frauds. The problem is that, on TV at least, we now rely on people like to Jon Stewart to call out the bullshit dispensers - and we project a responsibilty to 'ask the hard questions' on to wrong people because real journalists are an endangered species on TV and becoming scarcer elsewhere too.

lol. I think what Tony was trying to say was: they're all a bunch of nice guys - until you get to know them, or start to talk about politics beyond the talking points.

But I'm not sure if he can find those kinds of words, since the concept of calculated deception is about as difficult to confront for beltway wizards as it is for monks to deal with sex - They know it exists, but it's just got nothing to do with them.

Although I totally disagree with this guy, I do think he is sympathic.

Pardon the stereotype but Letterman can throw softballs like a lesbian. Jesus what a joke of an interview.

I cant think of one job where you lie more than White House press secretary, except maybe president. tony snowjob should be hung from the gallows along with cheney rummy etc etc./

I really like Tony Snow. He's charming and amiable and seems like a really, really nice guy. I happen to also think that he should be tried and found guilty for war crimes along with the rest of the crime organization that he worked for.

What's with the shrill 'hang em high!!' attitude? Next we'll be walking the streets in gangs pulling all perceived conservatives from their homes to lynch in town square.

Seems to me a moronic display that Billo might present was expected. Dave probably wanted to truly get a little insight into the position Tony found himself in. He held a responsible interview and didn't stoop to maniacal theatrics.

lukkystarr:

you go too far; you're the one with the histrionics.

Snow, Bush, et al should be TRIED for war crimes, ie, crimes against humanity, conspiracy to plan and actually waging a war of aggression, killing and plundering unnecessarily in war.

Whether the international court finds them guilty is up to the court. See [Nuremberg code] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Code)

Nuremberg Code

Nuremberg 'code' is incorrect.

Nuremberg Principles

Notice how the Bushies have gone from saying things like, "actually, Bush is really smart", to saying, "he is a really funny guy behind the scenes".

If he thinks that history will take a more favourable view of Bush than we have of him today, he has another thing coming - Bush's reputation will only get worse as time goes on, more revelations of his presidency will be revealed and the true extent of the damage he has caused will become evident.

Another thing - his approval ratings aren't "in the 30s", they are in the teens/low twenties, aren't they?

And the reason for an 11% approval rating for Congress is because they haven't impeached Bush yet!

What a shite interview.

What a shite interview.

Agreed.

I also have to say, Snow's "all wartime Presidents are unpopular" line (which is like Neo-con Li[n]e #57) is a load of bullshit. FDR is the key counter-example here, and I don't even think Presidents during the Korean and Vietnam wars stayed as consistently low as Bush.

Also interesting, with regard to FDR: After FDR died Truman took office, and IIRC, he still holds the all-time record for the lowest approval poll result. This was arguably because he had only been Vice President for just over a month or two, and FDR was too busy saving the world from the fascists to tell Truman what was going on (1). Truman also approved the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima - and then after the Japanese didn't surrender quickly enough, Nagasaki (2).

In other words, the reason Presidents get really low approval ratings is because (1) they're doing a crappy job and/or (2) doing something morally questionable.

Furthermore, Tony Snow strikes me as someone who can only be descibed by the phrase "total douchebag".

Frenetic, Truman's low approval ratings didn't stem from his decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan, whether one thinks they should have or not. His ratings didn't begin to falter until a year later, when he was perceived to have handled labor disputes in a high-handed fashion (labor was once strong in the US, believe it or not) and for raging inflation (over which he had little control).

The real blow to Truman's popularity in his second term came when he fired MacArthur - which was, ironically, probably the best decision of his presidency.

Oh, but your douchebag description of Tony Snow is dead-on.

The guy's got cancer -- Dave was appropriately soft.

I really think Tony left to make a few million to leave to his family, because he doesn't have much longer to live.

Still taking chemo pills...

Yes, he's got cancer. If the wants to be treated with kid gloves, he should have stayed home - nobody forced him to go on Letterman and make excuses for the shitheads in the White House. Consider how things go when the shoe is on the other foot: not only would Limbaugh or O'Reilly bully and interrupt their guest, Limbaugh would accuse the guest of faking (think Michael J. Fox).

what a total shill.

bush: a fun guy to work with.

yes, that's gonna go down in history.